When preparing to brew a home-made beer for the first time, a beginner brewer often asks himself - how long can I store my finished beer?
Many people assume that the shelf life of home-made, unpasteurized beer will be very short. Therefore, it is surprising to find out that we can store homemade beer for up to several year

Of course, such a long storage period works only in very strong beers, such as RIS (Russian Imperial Stout) or Belgian monastic beers such as Dubbel, Tripel or Quadruppel. Such beers may not only be allowed to mature for a long time, but also favor the formation of an appropriate flavor profile. Weaker beers stored for such a long period will not spoil, but will lose their optimal flavor as a result of aging.

 

 

Therefore, let us distinguish between two types of beer taste change: spoilage (infection, sourness) and aging of the beer mainly due to oxidation.

The magical way of preserving home-made beer is refermentation, more about which you can also read on our blog. Refermentation, i.e. re-fermentation in a closed bottle or keg, as a result of adding a small amount of sugar when bottling the beer. During this process, the yeast produces CO2, which saturates the beer and fills the free space in the neck of the bottle with it, cutting the beer from contact with oxygen, which promotes the beer sour. Besides, it creates a very strong and lively monoculture, blocking the growth of other microorganisms.

If the beer was healthy, we took care of the disinfection of the bottles and equipment during beer bottling, and by refermenting the beer to prevent deterioration. How to protect them from aging now? We have three main factors in aging beer: temperature, oxygen and light.

Too much oxygen in the beer will accelerate its oxidation, which is manifested by a distinct change in the beer flavor profile. The most characteristic aromas that indicate the oxidation of beer are the honey aroma, which turns into tofee. It can be quite intense, obscuring the main flavor profile of the beer. Another common aroma and flavor is compared to wet cardboard. In addition, you can meet with notes of blackcurrant, grass or marzipan. Slight oxidation is sometimes desirable in strong dark beers when it manifests itself as notes of dried fruit, nuts and sherry. Therefore, they are favored by long aging.

In order to slow down the oxidation of beer, its oxygenation after fermentation should be reduced as much as possible, i.e. mainly during bottling or pouring beer into silent fermentation. For this purpose, it is worth using hoses, a siphon and a bottle filler for pouring beer into bottles. As a natural preservative that slows down oxidation, we can also use ascorbic acid by adding about 4g of it. for 20l of beer, the color of the beer and its aromatic qualities will be retained longer. Temperature is a factor that particularly influences the aging of beer. Beers stored at room temperature will oxidize faster than beers stored in a cold cellar or refrigerator. Temperature above 20 degrees C can accelerate the beer aging process two to three times.

Light will be another factor accelerating the aging of beer. It is mainly about the oxidation of hops compounds in beer, which in high concentration can cause skunk-like aromas, in lower concentration it is sometimes associated with the aromas of Cannabis plants. The UV radiation from daylight is primarily responsible for the oxidation of hops.
To sum up, home beer can be successfully stored for several to several months. However, it is worth making sure that it tastes as long as we wish. Let us limit the oxygenation of young beer, store bottled homemade beer in a possibly cool place with a stable temperature and avoid long-term exposure to daylight.